1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an accessory for a barbecue grill which automatically flips food over at desired intervals, and which allows the food to rest essentially on the existing grill rack surface when cooking.
2. Prior Art
The use of grills with food turning racks is known in the prior art (reference U.S. Pat. No. 4,583,452 to Grosse disclosing a food holder for barbecue rotisserie). However, such devices turn the food constantly and have no ability to properly cook food intended to be cooked primarily on 2 sides only, for example hamburgers or steaks etc. To cook properly, such food requires presenting one side of the food to the heat source for a predetermined time, and then flipping the food 180 degrees for another predetermined time. Depending on the food, it is often desirable to flip the food twice or more in this fashion to achieve optimum cooking. There is some prior art which addresses solutions for automatically turning such 2-sided food (reference U.S. Pat. No. 4,562,771 to Williams disclosing a flip-over drive system for a removable oven rotisserie, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,410,948 to Eickmeyer disclosing a cooking grill with automatically rotatable food supporting faces), however they are not suitable for use with an existing grill rack because the food is not allowed to be located on the grill rack surface during cooking. This is because the pivot axis of the rotating food support rack on such devices is located essentially along a line connecting the center of the lateral edges of the food support rack. Thus, if such devices are used on a grill with an existing grill rack, then while cooking the food will be suspended a distance at least one half the length of the support rack lateral edge above the existing grill rack surface. Thus, the food will not cook properly if suspended at a height remote from the heat source. The user's only other option is to remove the existing grill rack each time the device is used, which is a difficult, dirty procedure.